Turn off dynamics in playback

• Apr 27, 2024 - 07:51

When I use playback, the 'forte' is too loud and the 'piano' is too quiet. Can I turn off or reduce the dynamics?

Comments

• Apr 28, 2024 - 17:12

Ctrl+A to Select All.
Right-click on a dynamic marking. From the context menu, click on Select / Similar in this range. This will select (highlight) all dynamic markings.
Click on the Properties tab at upper left.
Uncheck the "Play" checkbox.

After some experimentation, I find that "point" dynamics (pp, mf, fz, etc.) and "line" dynamics (cresc. and dim.) have to be Selected and un-Played separately. So, you have to do this once for "point" dymanics and again for "line" dynamics, if you have both.

Repeat the procedure and check the Play checkbox to reverse.

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• Nov 12, 2024 - 03:03

Sorry, I know this is an older thread, but:

We composers/arrangers—well, maybe everybody!—often want to temporarily turn off dynamics so we can most easily hear any errors in notation (e.g. missing accidentals).

My 14-year-old pre-"ribbon" (LOL) Sibelius did this easily:

  1. Ctrl+A (Select All)
  2. Alt+Shift+D (select dynamics only)
  3. Properties window > clear "Playback" checkbox

In MS, we must separately select and disable each type of dynamic mark ("point", cresc. hairpin, dim. hairpin, text), then re-select and re-enable each of them—meaning it takes six times longer. Each. Time. 😬💦

I propose a solution, using—and perhaps, vastly improving?—an existing feature, the Selection Filter (which could just be called the "Selection palette", BTW, that being what it is?):

  1. Select whole score (Ctrl+A)
  2. On Selection palette—oops, sorry, "Filter" (LOL)—clear the "All" checkbox.
  3. Select the "Dynamics" checkbox.

Golly, letting us use the Selection Filter to choose selections—not just exclude them, its current function—would let us select ranges of any similar objects quickly and easily, without having to go through the "Select..." context menus and dialog box... Just select a range of bars, select whatever you wish right there, done.

And why not? Isn't a selection a selection? It'd be a welcome speed-up for those of us who are always rushing to meet deadlines that were last Tuesday.

Thanks! 🎵 😊👍

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• Nov 12, 2024 - 17:26

Your order definitely won't work, but it ought to work by moving step 1 to the end:

  1. On Selection Filter, clear the All checkbox (which also clears all checkboxes).
  2. Check the Dynamics checkbox.
  3. Select an entire section by clicking on a first note, then Shift+clicking on a last note.

"Ought to work" seems to be the relevant phrase. This sequence does work with Voice 1 or Voice 2. But it does not work on Dynamics, Hairpins, Lyrics or Slurs (which were all the ones I tested. And Ctrl+A does not work for any of them; you must use a Shift+click multiselect.

I would call that NOT working. *shrug*

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